BBC Vs Jody McIntyre

During the student demonstrations against the UK's tuition fees hike  in London last week news that a disabled participant had been dragged from his wheelchair by the London Metropolitan Police spread across Twitter like wild fire. However, I was initially sceptical that this had actually happened as in such cases rumours, both real and unsubstantiated can be retweeted by many who do not check upon their validity. Even the photograph that was cited as evidence of the attack was less than conclusive as it was open to a number of interpretations. However, in the age of cheap video technology and Youtube it was perhaps inevitable that footage of the incident would come to light.



As it turned the victim of the assault, Jody McIntyre, is an activist and journalist who has previously been interviewed by the Guardian and so there was a face and a history to go with the images of burly police officers wrestling McIntyre who has cerebal palsy to the ground during the protests. As disgraceful as their conduct was it did not the BBC's Ben Brown from accusing McIntyre of possibly provoking it by attacking the officer using his wheelchair? (no, I'm not making this up)

In what was an appalling piece of gutter journalism a disabled person who'd been assualted not once but twice by the police was called upon to defend himself from accusations by a presenter who has obviously confused his role as a journalist with that of London metropolitan Police's defence lawyer. It is a disgraceful piece of biased reporting that was handled skillfully by McIntyre who calmly and rationally argued the obvious that a person in a wheelchair who needs assistance to move around does not constitute a threat to hundreds of  police officers dressed in riot gear.

The BBC  interview is here.



Jody McIntyre's blog is here and you can follow him on Twitter here.

Greece and the Neo - Orwellians

 

"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth."

Unlike the pontiffs of old Greek prime minister Giorgos Papandreou seems able to be an unlikely follower of the dogma of papal infallibility in which a move from one theological/ideological position to its exact opposite can be achieved without having erred in either case. On 23rd May Papandreou stated categorically to El Pais that Athens would not ask for its mountain of debt to be restructured, a position he repeated in a BBC interview in September and on 16th November to El Figaro, going so far as to say such a move would be a "disaster for Greeks".

Yet just last week the IMF/EU/ECB decided to extend the payment schedule for Greece's bailout out package from five to 11 years and this is now being hailed by the government and much of the media as a kiss of life for the country. It's interesting to see how the state run channels and pro-government TV stations such as MEGA, Skai and Antenna have promoted this latest change of heart without the slightest reference to previous government statements which held that such policies were not in the nation's interest.

In a repelling way it is fascinating to see how the ideas George Orwell espoused in 1984 are still revelent is a seemingly democratic regime with a free press. The truth, however, is the press in Greece is neither free nor independent but rather beholden to powerful political and economic interests which limit the parameters of what is acceptable in terms of political discussion. One only has to compare the rough ride given Ireland's ruling politicians following their bailout with the servile treatment of their Greek counterparts by local media. In many repects its hard to tell the difference between the official government line and that taken by the reporters who are covering domestic political matters.

The reality of the matter is that the press have sided with those in power in the hope of persuading ordinary Greeks that the massive social and economic dislocation they are suffering is inevitable and that any possible protests against PASOK's austerity measures are futile and anti-productive. This may, indeed by the case, but the stiffling of free and open debate about the options Greece has in the face of the current economic crisis is both dangerous and short sighted as it is steadily undermining respect for the government and democratic institutions in general.

Greek riot police bring the light of civilisation to the masses

For the full story on how the riot police stormed the Acropolis click here.

Greece - looking beyond the statistics

As Greeece sinks more and more deeply into economic recession one of the most frustrating aspects of the crisis is the lack of quality coverage from the foreign press. Whilst most Greeks have little of no confidence in the veracity of local media reporting, they do not expect the same kind of low grade journalism from organisations such as the BBC or the Economist.

On Thursday Gavin Hewitt, the BBC's European editor wrote about the current situation in Greece in his blog and while reflecting the widely held belief amongst economists the the current "rescue package" is doomed to failure seemed happy to simply regurgitate Athens's line on how the situation is all under control and that things are going to plan. Hewitt even went as far as to say that;

"It was expected that austerity would persuade Greeks to keep their wallets shut. Private consumption is actually up by 1.5%."

No source is given for this surprising factoid and it flies in the face of virtually every piece of economic and anecdotal evidence I know of. Since the massive hikes in VAT and tax on petrol have lead nearly everyone I know to cut back on spending on everything from holidays to food. According to the national daily Imerisia sales of petrol have fallen 30% since the beginning of the year leading to the closure of over 1000 petrol stations nationwide. In addition foreign retail chains such as FNAC and Aldi have recently announced that they are pulling out of the Greek market and local supermarket chain Atlantik is set to close its doors as well with the loss of 4000 jobs.

These events hardly point to a bouyant retail sector nor do they seem to show that private consumption is on the rise. This is another example of foreign commentators with little in the way of real life experience of the countries they are covering relay on official statistics and second hand accounts. If Hewitt had asked anyone outside the hermetically closed worlds in which foreign journalist often operate he would have seen a different picture from that shown in the officially sanctioned Greek state media which drifts ever further from the shores of reality in its quest to prop up the government's line.

However, the BBC is not alone in swallowing the half truths and full-on misconceptions that often surround Greece's role in the present economic crisis. A hardy perennial in that category is the idea that the country has, in the words of the Economist, "a lavish social security system" and that uncontrolled public spending on the old and poor has bankrupted the country.

Yet what the Economist either do not care to know or did not bother to find out is that while lavsh payments are to be found in the sytem they are limited to the members of the country's state and party nomenclature and that for every 50 year old living high on the hog on their state pension there are hundreds of other OAPs eeking out a living on less than 400 euros a month in a country where the cost of living is only shade lower than in countries such as Germany and the UK.

With the highest rate of poverty in the EU and the largest number of working poor Greece is hardly the worker's paradise that publications such as the Economist would have us believe. Life for those without the right party and personal connections is a hard struggle for survival which is daily getting becoming more difficult as the IMF/EU/ECB measures eat away at the nation's economic foundations so bringing little more than poverty and despair in the name of an economic orthodoxy which failed so spectacularly in 1929.

Do you feel grateful? You've got to be kidding, right?

Just got off the phone with the BBC. I got a phone call earlier today asking if I would like to take part in a discussuion on the their Have Your Say programme and I said that I would be delighted to take part, especially after the BBC employee me asked me why Greeks were not feeling more grateful about the recent bailout deal. People here have a number of reactions to the EU-IMF brokered deal but gratitude is certianly not one of them. Anger, outrage, frustration and fear are far likely to be quoted but no one, and I mean no one I have heard discuss the matter considerd the current situation something to celebrate.

This seemed to puzzle some of the other participants on Have Your Say and many of the listener who sent in emails. Perhaps this stems from the fact apart from the raw economic facts people living outside Greece have only the vaguest idea of how things work here and how big a shock the present crisis is to people throughout the country. As I said to the presenter imagine being mugged and then being asked to contribute to your mugger's legal costs, which is basically what many Greeks are feeling at the moment.

Whilst everyone here is aware of the extensive faults of the Greek government (we live them daily) and the problems with graft and waste the the sheer size of the deficit created by the past two government's came as much as a surprise to ordinary people here as it did to the world's financial markets. Now it seems that the two major parties have not just sold off the family silver but mortgaged the future of the whole nation for at least a generation the mood of seething anger lies over the country like some kind of toxic fug.

How did it come to this? Where did all that money go? How come the country owes so much? are just some of the questions on everyone's lips. Now those who are responsible for getting the country into this "death spiral" as the BBC put it are now calling for a joint national effort to pay off an impossible mountain of debt. I swear that if the leader of either PASOK or New Democracy made a public appearence at the moment they'd be lucky to escape a lynching by a baying mob.

A measure of the fear that the present administration feels over the strength of popular resentment that it announced the fact that the country was going to go to the EU-IMF from the island of Kastellorizo which about as far away from Athens as it far to get and still remain in Greece. This is akin to Gordon Brown announcing the most regressive social measures in a generation from the Outer Hebrides.

New Democracy's scorched earth economic policy

Greece does not produce cars not does it manufacture computers. It relies instead upon tourism, shipping, agriculture and construction. So, when you read that the contractors who built the Greek stand at the world's most important trade fair in London have been forced to go to court due to to the country's government's unwillingness to pay them on time then you have to wonder what the hell is going on. It seems that the previous conservative New Democracy administration carried out a scorched earth policy as far the country's economy is concerned.

It wasn't enough to borrow huge amounts of money "off the books" so putting futures generation in hock for decades to come. That would have been too simple. In addition they left a legacy of debt and mistrust in virtually every area of public life, including Greece's vital tourist industry which now owes millions to advertisers such as CNN, Google, MTV and even 67,000 euros to London taxi drivers. It was only the last minute intervention of recently appointed junior minister for the economy Kostas Papakostas that averted the mortifying spectacle of the English bailiffs seizing Greece's national Tourism Organisation (EOT) assets as a result of a court order due to outstanding debts stemming from a trade fair in 2008.

Not that any of this worries the future leadership of New Democracy. You'd think that running the country's economy into the ground and being on the business end of the worst electoral defeat in a generation would give people pause for thought. Nothing of the kind. The four, sorry now three candidates for the leadership of New Democracy have done little else since their election debacle of October 4th than fight amongst each other over how the next party leader will be elected. There has been little or no discussion over why their party have seen its worst defeat since 1981 or why despite winning power three times since its inception in 1974 New Democracy has not once been able to serve a full four year term.

Looking at the three remaining candidates Dora Bakoyianni, Antonis Samara and Panayiotis Psomiadis you cannot but be reminded of the Titanic. The current backroom deals over who is going to become leader of New Democracy on have as much relevance as arguments over who is going to share the captain's table on that unfortunate vessel.

Greek police raze refugee camp to the ground.

Early on Sunday morning hundreds of members of the Greek police force raided an unofficial refugee camp in the Greek port of Patras as part of an nationwide 'clean sweep" operation. The camp which has been in existence for nearly a decade was home to hundreds of immigrants, mainly from Afghanistan hoping to sneak aboard trucks headed for Italy.

Using bulldozers the local authorities razed to the ground the shacks and huts that until recently housed an estimated 150 people. Several fires were reported as a result of the raid and according to official police sources 44 minors were detained along with 30 adults who will be held in a reception centre until they are deported. The raid has been criticised as "inhuman" and called a "pogrom" by the left wing SYRIZA party and the Greek Communist party.

The ruling New Democracy party has also announced that it will set up internment camps throughout the country to house those who do not have a legal right to stay in the country. It should be noted that at present Greece grants asylum to 0.1% of those who apply for it and has been repeatedly criticised by Amnesty International, other European governments and the UNHCR for its treatment of refugees and immigrants.

On the other hand the latest poll carried out by Public Issue found that 93% of those questioned thought that Greece could not take in any more immigrants and that 62% said that immigration is probably harming Greece.

Stung by his party's poor showing in the recent European elections prime minister Kostas Karamanlis has decided to get tough on the issue of immigration in order to avoid losing more support to the far right LAOS party. With the possibility of general elections in either September or March 2010 at the latest Karamanlis is hoping that a tough stance on crime and immigrants will help bring back voters who have deserted the party in droves after two years of corruption and influence peddling scandals involving several government ministers

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Tags: police | Greece | World | immigration | refugees | Patras | New Democracy | fortress europe | karamnalis

UK MPs: "We're not paid enough"

Gordon Brown loves you., originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

"MPs were accused yesterday of a massive cover-up of their expenses after the Commons authorities released hundreds of thousands of claims documents and receipts with huge sections of detail blacked out.

Amid renewed public anger over the scale of Westminster's spending habits, the documents contained enough fresh information to create new embarrassment for senior politicians.

David Cameron was forced to pay back an extra £947, the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, was reported to the parliamentary commissioner for standards and Gordon Brown was revealed to have charged the taxpayer almost £6,500 to green his second home in Scotland.

Even Tony Blair found himself under the spotlight after the documents revealed that he had claimed almost £7,000 for roof repairs two days before leaving office and standing down as an MP.

With MPs reeling from public anger at the extent of their claims, Bill Cockburn, the chairman of the body responsible for setting their pay, chose yesterday to suggest that MPs deserve a pay rise of up to £10,000 a year, arguing that they were underpaid by 10-15%.

It was also disclosed that 184 MPs – over a third of the Commons – have agreed to pay back nearly £478,000 in inappropriate claims, including Brown and ministers Douglas Alexander, Alistair Darling, Yvette Cooper, David Miliband, Ed Balls, Rosie Winterton, Andy Burnham and the former home secretary Jacqui Smith."

Guardian

To check out other expense claims check out this BBC webpage.

The Ian Tomlinson case - A wake up call for traditional media

Photograph by Teacher Dude

After an embarrassingly long gap the mainstream media in Britain has finally woken up to the fact that there was something amiss about the death of Ian Tomlinson during last week's G20 summit protests. Initially, newspapers on the right of the UK political spectrum gleefully lapped up police accounts of beserker anarchists pelting officers and first aiders attempting to help Tomlinson, 47 who had apparently collapsed due to a heart attack whilst walking home from work through the protests in central London.



However, almost immediately images and accounts from people present started to circulate on the internet which contradicted the official account of what supposedly happened to Ian. Eyewitnesses spoke of efforts by demonstrators to help despite harassment and threats by the riot squad units in the vacinity. Thankfully, The Observer ran a story exposing the inconsistencies in the official version and video has been posted by The Guardian which shows a clearer idea of what really happened. That Ian had been the victim of an unprovoked attacked by a balaclava wearing officer who struck him from behind and shoved him to the floor just minutes before he died.



Still, questions still remain about what happened next. In the video Tomlinson seems to be shocked though basically unharmed, yet according to extra footage shown by the BBC the next thing we see is him surrounded by officers supposedly there to protect him whilst first aid was administered.



With so many video cameras around do the police really think that they will be able to cover this up the same way they did with Jean Charles de Menezes. One thing is certain though, they will try their best to make sure that the truth doesn't come out. Nor will they deal with the problem of heightened levels of police intimidation and violence that seem to accompany any large scale protest in the UK nowadays. If the Chinese, North Korean or Iranian authorities used these tactics the press would be screaming about suppression of civil liberties, yet when practiced by "good, old English bobbies" they are considered perfectly acceptable by much of the British press.

Time and time again I have heard members of the traditional media cry that bloggers and others who get their news out via the internet do not check their facts, are unreliable and prone to simply write whatever they like irrespective of what the truth of the matter is. And yet these same media professionals are just as likely to let stories like the Tomlinson case ride rather than do their job. They'd much rather simply copy and paste the official line and settle for a quite life than ask awkward questions that might get them in trouble with the editor/owner.

In such a situation what exactly is the advantage of their much vaunted professionalism and supposedly superior insight in the world of news gathering? Thankfully, there now exist a parallel system of reporting which can act as the mainstream media's conscience, should they care to listen.

G20 - "This is not a riot"

We are definitely living in interesting times. Modes and levels of protest not seen in decades are sweeping many countries in Europe and elsewhere as the G20 leaders meet to discuss our future in London. Here in Greece the country is in the midst of a general strike organised by trade unions to protest the government spending cuts. In Northern Ireland workers have taken over three Ford owned plants, in France bosses of a factory scheduled to close were held hostage yesterday by sacked employees and, of course there have been protests in London.

Yesterday I followed events in Britain via the internet and once again I have come to the conclusion that the mainstream media are being outclassed by their internet rivals. The coverage of the demonstrations by the BBC ranged from the misleading to the trite and once again the established channels blindly accepted the official version given the police and authorities and resorted to long distance reporting via telephoto lens and imported "experts" who no more about what's happening down in the streets than I do here in Greece.

Even the coverge of the events inside the summit amounted to little more than gossip and observation more suited to a beauty pageant than a high level political event. I think I heard the same old statistics repeated hundreds of times. I wonder if anyone went to bother to check out if they are true or just decided that endlessly recycling press releases is easier than doing some first hand research.

Thankfully, I was also following events via Twitter, Flickr, Youtube and blogs which gave me a much more rounded view of events including the excesses of the police whose use of "kettling" (hemming in large groups of people for hours on end) seemed to be tailor made to create tension.



In addition, We also have video footage of the way in which UK riot police went out of their way to provoke violent response from protesters in the Climate Camp in Bishopgate.

The economic downturn bites even deeper

"As many as 51 million jobs worldwide could be lost this year because of the global economic crisis, says the International Labour Organization(ILO).

The UN agency says that would push up the world's unemployment rate to 7.1% by the end of 2009, compared with 6.0% in 2008 and 5.7% in 2007.

The ILO's most optimistic forecast is for 18 million more unemployed, giving a global jobless rate of 6.1%"

Click here to read the rest of the BBC article.

RyanAir - Spending your pennies wisely

This morning while nursing a head cold from hell I came across this story at BBC News;

"Irish budget airline Ryanair has said it is considering charging passengers for using the toilet while flying.

Chief executive Michael O'Leary told the BBC that the Dublin-based carrier was looking at maybe installing a "coin slot on the toilet door". See here for the rest of the article.

So with some time on my hands and wanting to try out some video editing tools I made this satirical video making fun of RyanAir's ridiculous policy.



It seems that the satire bug is contagious. Check out Claesm's brilliant parody on Flickr.

To ίντερνετ ρίχνει κυβερνήσεις - the internet topples governments

Photo by Oliristinn

Η πρωθυπουργός της Ισλανδίας ζήτησε από τους διοικητές των τριών μεγαλύτερων τραπεζών της χώρας να παραιτηθούν, προσπαθώντας να αποκαταστήσει στην εμπιστοσύνη στο τρωθέν σύστημα της χώρας.

H νέα πρωθυπουργός ανέλαβε την εξουσία υποσχόμενος να αντιμετωπίσει την χρηματοπιστωτική κρίση που έπληξε τη χώρα, και έριξε την προηγούμενη κυβέρνηση, η οποία υπέστη και ιντερνετικό πόλεμο.

To ξημέρωμα στην Ισλανδία, η ατμόσφαιρα είναι παγωμένη και το σκοτάδι δεν δίνει σιγά σιγά τη θέση του στο φως της ημέρας.

Είναι η ώρα που που οι Ισλανδοί κολυμπούν στα νερά των ιαματικών γεωθερμικών λουτρών.

Μετά το πρωινό κολύμπι απολαμβάνουν τη ραστώνη, και συζητούν για τραπεζίτες και πολιτικούς.

“Έπρεπε να είναι όλοι στη φυλακή, πολλοί άνθρωποι χάνουν τις δουλειές τους, η κρίση είναι μεγάλη, είναι εγκληματίες και κλέφτες”, σχολιάζουν οι πολίτες.

Το σάϊτ Iceland Weather Report, είναι ένα από τα δημοφιλέστερα στη χώρα. Εκεί εκφράζεται ο ωμός θυμός πολλών Ισλανδών.

Οι πολιτικοί προσποιούνται ότι ο διαδικτυακός αυτός τόπος δεν υπάρχει, όμως το 90% των Ισλανδών κάνουν χρήση του διαδικτύου, και εξέφρασαν τις απόψεις τους.

"Μας δίνεται η αίσθηση μιας σιωπηλής επανάστασης, ο κόσμος ζητά ριζικές αλλαγές, οι επιφανειακές διακοσμητικές αλλαγές δεν είναι αρκετές, δεν φτάνει μόνον ένας κυβερνητικός ανασχηματισμός", επισημαίνει η Άλντα Σίγκμουντοτιρ, υπεύθυνη του διαδικτυακού τόπου Iceland Weather Report.

Οι μπλόγκερς υποστήριξαν τις διαδηλώσεις που έγιναν έξω από το κοινοβούλιο της Ισλανδίας, οι πολίτες δεν ικανοποιήθηκαν από την ανατροπή της κυβέρνησης, θεωρούν όλους τους πολιτικούς διεφθαρμένους, και ζητούν νέα πρόσωπα στην κυβέρνηση.

Οι διαμαρτυρίες διαπέρασαν και υπερκέρασαν τις παραδοσιακές πολιτικές δομές, ο αυθόρμητος πολιτικός θυμός των ανθρώπων εξελίχθηκε σε κίνημα που ανέτρεψε την κυβέρνηση, κάτι που οι πολιτικοί απέτυχαν να προβλέψουν.

Χιλιάδες πολίτες μέσω των ίντερνετ καφέ και τις μπλογκόσφαιρας δημοσιοποιούν τις απόψεις τους και την αγανάκτηση τους.

"Οι πολίτες μάθαιναν τα νέα και τις εξελίξεις από άλλους πολίτες, κανείς δεν εμπιστευόταν τις επίσημες πηγές πληροφόρησης, οι πολιτικοί πρέπει να είναι ταπεινοί και να αφουγκράζονται το λαό", τονίζει ο πολιτικός ακτιβιστής, Στάρι Χόκστον.

Η Ισλανδία επικοινωνεί με ολόκληρο τον κόσμο, μέσω διαδικτύου, μια παλιά αποθήκη για ψάρια στεγάζει την ηλεκτρονική βάσει του μεγαλύτερου διαδικτυακού παιχνιδιού στον κόσμο, με 250,000 παίκτες παγκοσμίως, που προσπαθούν να κατακτήσουν ένα τεχνητό σύμπαν.

Στον πραγματικό κόσμο οι πολιτικοί προσπαθούν να ελέγξουν το διαδίκτυο, στην περίπτωση όμως της Ισλανδίας, το διαδίκτυο κέρδισε τους πολιτικούς.

From Skai.gr

And see here for the original BBC video report from Iceland

Iceland's new prime minister Johanna Sigurdardottir has asked the country's three central bank governors to resign in an attempt to restore faith in the country's battered financial system.

The previous government was the first in the world to be brought down by the credit crunch, but it may also have been the first casualty of internet politics.

Brian Hanrahan reports from Reykjavik.

Athens sees still more violent clashes

Athens marchers attacked by police - Indymedia Athens-Photo-01

see more

Pictures from Indymedia Athens

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  Created by Teacher Dude | add comment

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  Created by Teacher Dude | add comment

On Saturday protest marches were held in Athens in solidarity with those arrested by police during the series of clashes which spread across Greece in December following the shooting by police of a 15 year old teenager in the capital's Exarchia district.

Protests turned violent as some demonstrators clashed with riot police near the Propylia area of downtown Athens. However, eyewitness accounts published in Greek language blogs say that the police used excessive force, throwing stun grenades into the crowds and indiscriminately beating marchers. Attacks were also reported upon riot police in Thessaloniki, Greece's second city last night in which Molotov cocktails were thrown at police vans.

Despite hopes that last year's violent confrontations have died down, the marches demonstrate that popular anger has yet to be extinguished. On Thursday (see here for video) about 1000 people marched in protest against the attack on Labour activist, Konstandina Kouneva, the victim of an acid attack in December. The 44 year - old Bulgarian trade unionist is still in intensive care after having acid thrown in her face and being forced to drink the liquid.

Lawyers representing her say the attack was prompted by her work in exposing an alleged scam by cleaning companies with contracts with the state run organisations which meant that the mainly foreign born work force received slave wages.

The duration of the confrontations has seen the rapid development of a mini "arms race" on Greek streets with the appearance of more and more protesters wearing gas masks in order to counter-act the authorities extensive use of tear gas. According to the BBC the government has responded by ordering water cannons which will be ready for action within the next two weeks.

The ruling New Democracy party also faces protests by farmers who have used tractors to block road junctions across the country in demonstration over low prices and lack of government support for the nation's agricultural sector. Attempts to placate farmers with a 500 million euro aid package have still not seen an end to the roadblocks.

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Tags: Greece | protests | farmers | World | Riots | athens | roadblocks | Thessaloniki | kouneva

Concert for Palestine

Concert for Palestine, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Tonight there was a concert in the centre of Thessaloniki in support of Palestinians under siege in the Gaza Strip. For the latest news updates from Al Jazeera click here and from the BBC click here.

Weird scenes inside the classroom

This exercise is aimed at post-intermediate EFL/ESL students and is a great way to practice listening skills using real life examples.

1 - Ask students if they have heard any strange or unusual stories in the news. If the subject matter is too difficult for them to express in English allow some limited use of L1 or get them to write down the words they need in L1, translate them and write on the board. The others have to guess the story's content.

2 Do the same thing from one of Yahoo Odd News stories. For example (click here);

flowers, sorry, 92 year-old, burglary, England,

3 Students write down a few sentences about what they story could be about and then compare them with their partners.

4 Give out a photocopy of the story or get them to find the story using the words in a Google search.

5 Students then compare and contrast their own version with official one. This is great practice for students doing the FCE/CAE/CPE exams.

6 Next, explain to students that they are going to hear ten weird stories from the BBC's Newsbeat Odd Box. They have to write down as many details of the story as possible.



Just be careful about which ones you choose as some stories may be unsuitable for younger students.

7 After playing the video once allow students to check their answers with each other. Play it again.

8 Students then work as a class to write a paragraph for each video. They then take turns in reading out their paragraphs.

9 Explain to students that they are in charge of a national TV station and that they time for just two of the stories mentioned. They discuss in groups which ones would be most intereting for a national audience and why.

10 Elict answers

As a follow up ask students to choose one of the stories from Odd Box and find out more information about it. this could be presented in the form of a TV report which can be recorded by students using the video camera on their mobile phones and posted via YouTube onto a class blog.

The Genius of Photography

My lessons have more or less finished and I'm getting my affairs in order before I go back to England for the next couple of months. I will be looking for work there as it is difficult to find any teaching jobs here during the summer. Anyway, I do have more time on my hands to see friends and remember what life is like without the constant stress of having to race around the city in order to earn a crust.

Also I have more time to search the internet for the stuff that interests me and I came across this excellent series of six programmes on photography by the BBC called the Genius of Photography.

"In the course of our 170 year relationship, photography has delighted us, served us, moved us, outraged us and occasionally disappointed us. But mainly, it has intrigued us by showing the secret strangeness that lies beneath the world of appearances. And that is photography's true genius."



If you want to see more of the series I would recommend you see it using a great application I found a couple of days ago, Veoh TV. You need to download it first and then it lets you watch streaming TV via the internet.

The Olympic torch's shadowy past

The Olympic torch's shadowy past

By Chris Bowlby BBC News

The Olympic torch is being welcomed this weekend in the UK as a symbol of the sporting spirit, uniting people around the world in peaceful competition.

But the idea of lighting the torch at the ancient Olympian site in Greece and then running it through different countries has much darker origins.

It was invented in its modern form by the organisers of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

And it was planned with immense care by the Nazi leadership to project the image of the Third Reich as a modern, economically dynamic state with growing international influence.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

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Nato denies Georgia and Ukraine

Nato denies Georgia and Ukraine

Nato has confirmed it will not offer membership to Georgia or Ukraine but agreed to review the decision on the
ex-Soviet republics in December.

The alliance also said it would not invite Macedonia to join amid protests from Greece over Macedonia's name.

But Nato confirmed that Balkan neighbours Albania and Croatia would be asked to join the club.

France's Nicolas Sarkozy announced at the summit in Romania hundreds of extra French troops for Afghanistan.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

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Great but I managed to scoop them, at least in English as I wrote about this story three hours ago and put it on Now Public. However, I must admit that I got my info from the Greek media who have been talking about this all morning

Glad to see the back of it

"Police had warned they would confiscate all banners, signs or objects that might be thrown and arrest anyone who showed signs of protesting."

According to the BBC the Greek police seem to have cancelled the Greek constitution and our civil liberties for the day. Obviously, the right to protest peacefully doesn't count if the Olympics games are involved. I'll be glad to see the back of the Olympic torch.

For CNN's take on this click here.